Skype security, and privacy

Communications and privacy will always be a concern, any protocol a computer can generate can be broken, the question is how long, and how important.

If your ego about your importance in the world is justified by others, then expect them to be listening. You can only slow them down.

For the rest of us, who are meaningless, no one will take the time to break through tissue paper to listen in on us. And we are safe enough.

If you seek real security, don’t use a computer to encrypt your message, find a better way.

Hero’s and Politicians

In doing some ‘research’ I came across a bit of a historical myth from the American Revolutionary War And I was thinking of Heroics and Politics. Have you ever wondered why we don’t have any hero’s these days?

THE BLACKSMITH AT BRANDYWINE

Terrible in the field at Brandywine was the figure of a man armed only
with a hammer, who plunged into the ranks of the enemy, heedless of his
own life, yet seeming to escape their shots and sabre cuts by magic, and
with Thor strokes beat them to the earth. But yesterday war had been to
him a distant rumor, a thing as far from his cottage at Dilworth as if it
had been in Europe, but he had revolted at a plot that he had overheard
to capture Washington and had warned the general. In revenge the Tories
had burned his cottage, and his wife and baby had perished in the flames.
All day he had sat beside the smoking ruins, unable to weep, unable to
think, unable almost to suffer, except dumbly, for as yet he could not
understand it. But when the drums were heard they roused the tiger in
him, and gaunt with sleeplessness and hunger he joined his countrymen and
ranged like Ajax on the field. Every cry for quarter was in vain: to
every such appeal he had but one reply, his wife’s name–Mary.

Near the end of the fight he lay beside the road, his leg broken, his
flesh torn, his life ebbing from a dozen wounds. A wagoner, hasting to
join the American retreat, paused to give him drink. “I’ve only five
minutes more of life in me,” said the smith. “Can you lift me into that
tree and put a rifle in my hands?” The powerful teamster raised him to
the crotch of an oak, and gave him the rifle and ammunition that a dying
soldier had dropped there. A band of red-coats came running down the
road, chasing some farmers. The blacksmith took careful aim; there was a
report, and the leader of the band fell dead. A pause; again a report
rang out, and a trooper sprawled upon the ground. The marksman had been
seen, and a lieutenant was urging his men to hurry on and cut him down.
There was a third report, and the lieutenant reeled forward into the
road, bleeding and cursing. “That’s for Mary,” gasped the blacksmith. The
rifle dropped from his hands, and he, too, sank lifeless against the
boughs.

The Real, root of all evil.

I’ve been just watching The Root of All Evil on RTE, of all places, I’m surprised that the Catholic Church allow them to broadcast it.



I more or less believe this to be the case for years, there is Reason and then there is Religion, Good verses Evil. Christian Fundamentalists, Islamic Jihadist’s and any other religious belief system taken to an extreme is evil. Plain and simple, lesser measures of religion are merely irrational.

You can have morals without religion, you can have the rule of the laws of man without religion.

The Guise of truth

Israel lost the last war with Hezbollah and I Blogged about it here when I wrote that Israel loses the War on Terror and it looks like the Israeli government has learned to change their propaganda to alter perceptions but are we trusting what we see?. Can we recognize a YouTube campaign when we see one? Not likely, but what is worse is that this ‘war’ may be more about upcoming elections in Israel than anything Hamas has been doing.

UPDATE:

Kinda says it all!

The Civil war of Europe

One effect of the Lisbon treaty is to bring into stark relieve the different perceptions of politicians and citizens. More than a century ago in the United States there was a Civil war. And while the popular belief was that this war was over slavery, it was not. It is an issue which Europe faces now and in the future. What faced the U.S. was not an issue, but a right to deal with an issue locally, within the individual states representing the members of the United States. A confederacy of independent but unified States joined in common defense. The E.U. is currently just such a confederacy, but the Lisbon treaty seeks to move that into a Federalist, Centralist Nation. In the U.S.A. the Federalists sought to force the freeing of slaves on all the states, a centralist decision, which the State governments of the South had previously supported Slavery and while the topic was abhorrent, the subject could just as well have been health food or something. The central Federal government forcing decisions on State governments.

This is the fundamental goal of the Lisbon treaty, to allow the creation of laws created in the Federated European Parliament to be issued to member State/Countries superseding local control. Just as in the U.S., this was the trigger for the Civil War. The Confederacy lost the argument, and a more ridged Federal, Central government was established. As in the U.S. a decision will have to be made, will Europe be a Federal Government, or will it retain it’s individual Nations in a loose Confederacy of United Nations. War is an alternative to this decision making process.

The only government that has allowed it’s citizens to vote, to allow them to choose what they wanted, were the Irish. But the politicians of the member states want a federal government and have decided that their citizens shouldn’t be allowed to choose. They now seek to ignore the ‘No” and force another vote again until they get their ‘Yes’ because a for them, a ‘No’ will restrict their power. There is no up side for the peoples of Europe, very government seeks to restrict and control it’s citizens the question is who will do the controlling. Will the Irish control the Irish, or will Brussels.

The choice is ours!

Thought Quotes

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
Alexis de Tocqueville

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
Alexis de Tocqueville

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.
Alexis de Tocqueville

Hillary Lost … Honor, creditability and honesty

More or less I was correct, Hillary lost, while Boosting about starting more wars to defend the Jewish voters of Pennsylvania, she lost creditability. With the dirty politics she lost Honesty and with her Carl Rove political tricks and fear mongering she lost the last of her Honor. It’s too bad she never sees herself in the mirror, she will never see herself in the whitehouse again, except in her dreams.

Hero’s are what we wish leaders to be.

And when we seek leaders, in our politicians, or in any person during a crisis and even even in a fellow worker in our day to day work lives. Hero’s brighten our lives, lighten our loads and renew our spirits. On the average we never seem to have enough hero’s, and we often seek them in our dreams, the theater, and on the television.

In this coming election season, the hopes and dreams of the world seek a hero in Barack, Hillary, Fred, Ron, Dennis, Mike and Al and/or any of the rest. And the goal of those politicians will be to appear to be, those hero’s, to win our hearts and minds. But hero’s aren’t heros by selling themselves, but by proving themselves, not by convincing us to trust them, but by earning our trust.

We shouldn’t be looking for the lesser of the evils, but the best hope for the future.


…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Vietnam body counts all over again.

If you need any further reason to think of Iraq as George Bush’s ‘Vietnam War‘. Just read this article 19,000 insurgents killed and remember that not a single body has been confirmed by independent counts. Just like in Vietnam, the actual body counts were always inflated by several orders of magnitude. So applying the same rule, read 19,000 as 1,900 tops, which is smaller than the number of coalition force causalities, Dead causalities, not just the 25,000 Wounded coalition forces.

So who is winning in Iraq?

Planting the seeds of an the attack on Iran

This article Iran Is Found To Be a Lair of Al Qaeda reeks of the same odor as the ‘intelligence’ that led to the invasion of Iraq. But it’s just the first seed, a testing of the waters, if you will, for more elaborate fabrications. Watch this story unfold, as it will get better.

Mind you the leadership of Iran does not have any real love for the U.S., but the Bush administration has more personal links to this country than they are willing to admit. Just ask George’s father.